One of the most important services that we provide is estate planning. A summarised version of what we do involves assessing an individuals assets and liabilities and how they want them distributed on their death. We plan an individual's estate so that administration costs are eased, tax is minimised and all the heirs receive their inheritance in accordance with the wishes of the deceased.
It is imperative that an audit of all assurance policies is done as part of the estate planning process and it is often amazing how many people have no idea what benefits they are paying for. How can one plan properly for ones family if one doesn't really know how one is covered?
For example,
- Do you know how many times your policy will pay out for a dread disease? (A dread disease being cancer and heart failure, strokes and most other things that could potentially be life threatening)
- Do you know whether you have an accelerated policy or not? (An accelerated policy will reduce your life-cover should you claim for anything else)
- Is you life cover sufficient to cover estate duty and executors fees bearing in mind that these costs can run into millions of Rands?
- Will your disability cover actually pay out?
- What benefits are you going to get from your work pension fund?
- Is there a better/cheaper way to get the current assurance I have now?
These are just some of the questions one should be asking oneself when doing one's estate planning, and hopefully your broker should be able to answer these for you.
Written by Harry Lomas
This is a question we are often asked and the truth of the matter is that there is no simple rule to use when answering this question. A number often bandied about is that one should have a minimum of 10 times your annual salary at retirement invested to retire comfortably.
The fact is that this would be hopelessly inadequate for the vast majority of us in order to live comfortably. This figure assumes that one was expecting to either die soon after retirement, which in today's age of modern medicine is unlikely or receive consistent miraculous returns from your investments which is equally unlikely. The fact of the matter is that one would probably need closer to twenty times one's annual salary at retirement to retire comfortably, but as I said this is not a hard and fast rule, each individuals needs are different.
There are several things to take into account when determining how much you will need:
- How much do you want at retirement?
- What age are you planning to retire at?
- Will you need any lump sums to pay off debts?
- Inflation
- How long will you need the money for?
- Will the income you draw from your investments erode the capital or not?
Once these things have been accounted for one can now plan how much one will have to invest each month to attain one's goal. We have always maintained that the sooner one starts saving for retirement the easier it will to retire comfortably.
It is important to talk to a qualified financial advisor when planning for retirement, they should be able provide you with a clear plan of what you have to do to get to retirement and enjoy it.
Written by Harry Lomas
Guaranteed Investments
Guaranteed returns of 9,4% tax free.
Tax efficient guaranteed income of 9.34%
Property investments
We offer a product with 10% income increasing at 4% per annum and capital growth.
There is also a growth option of 18% per annum.
Mortgage Bonds
Through one of our service providers we are offering interest rates of up to prime less 2.2% on transferring your bond.
Unit trusts
Get access to one of the largest selections of top performing unit trusts with historical performances in excess of 30 % per annum.
